Review | The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1) by Holly Black

Publisher: Hot Key Books
Release date: January 2nd, 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 384
Rating: 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 (5.00)
Goodreads rating:  4.38

Goodreads summary:

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

My Review

Even though I haven’t read Holly Black’s other novels that are centred around fae, I know that people call her the Queen of Faerie. And it’s true. I don’t know if I talked about my love for all things fairy tale and faerie and magically strange, but as soon as I heard of The Cruel Prince , I knew that I had to read it. And it had it all! I loved everything about the Faerie aspect of this book, from the part where the fae cannot lie, to their tricks to bend the truth so much that you still can’t trust them, to their dislike for mortals. It was honestly so interesting to read about Jude, the protagonist and a mortal, and about how she learned to survive in Faerie – and what she had to do to find her place in a world that’s not her own and doesn’t treat her kindly.

If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.

The story itself is as strange, dark and unusual as could be expected from Holly Black! The plot was filled with court intrigues, spies, mystery and so many unexpected turns and twists! I had a lot of theories and most of them were wrong, but I love that in a book: when you never quite know what’s going to happen next and you can’t put it down, because you just need to know what’s really going on. The Cruel Prince was like that. And that ending!!!!! Wow, I didn’t see it coming at all and I want to read the next book so badly!

Instead of being afraid, I will become something to fear.

As for the characters, all I know is that I love Jude. She is everything one could hope for in a protagonist: brave, clever, strong and not easily intimidated. I think she could become some sort of anti-heroine, so if that’s something you enjoy, you’re probably really going to like her.

The family dynamics in this book were very complex and interesting, too: I liked the relationship between the sisters — Jude, Taryn and Vivi, and I hope we’re gonna see a lot more of their interactions in the following books, as well as the dynamics in Madoc’s whole family. I just wish they would get along better! It’s harder to say for the other characters; there were characters I really liked at the beginning and throughout the story I started getting angry at them for betraying Jude (I have two characters in mind here, but I won’t say their names, as not to spoiler anyone). Others, I never thought I would like, but I felt myself starting to care about them – this goes for Oriana, Madoc (in parts) and, for reasons that are beyond me, Cardan. I started liking him somewhere around this part:

“I may be rotten, but my one virtue is that I’m not a killer. I wanted to frighten you, but I never wanted you dead. I never wanted anyone dead.”

One thing I can say with certainty, though, is that whether you like the characters or not, they are all brilliantly written and filled with much depth (and everyone is kind of— not good? Like, no one here is really a nice person? They all have their dark sides and I love that!)

The Cruel Prince made me remember why it’s such agony to start a series when not every book of it has already been released. But I‘m more than certain that book #2 in the The Folk of the Air series will be worth the wait!

I want to thank Holly Black, for writing this stunning novel, as well as the publisher, Hot Key Books, and NetGalley, who provided me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All quotes were taken from an advanced reader’s copy and may be subject to change.